NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: BROOKLYN UP CLOSE

She Shoots, She Scores! No Apologies.

By DAVID ROHDE

Published: December 22, 1996

Two years ago, the newly created all-female team was the opposite of their brutish male counterparts. To the astonishment of their male coach, the women stopped, apologized and helped their opponents off the ice after a collision. Worst of all, said their coach, Aaron Foeste, they worried about hurting the other team's feelings.

This season, the Blades have shown little mercy on the ice and have a 5-2 record. But the 30 players still play their own unusual brand of hockey. No matter what her ability, everyone plays the same amount of time in each game. Mr. Foeste said the players don't want to take time away from someone else.

''When you coach boys you have to teach them to be team players,'' said Mr. Foeste, 26. ''When you coach women you have to teach them to play like individuals. People are worried about being put on the ice at the end of the game because it could hurt other people's feelings.''

The team grew out of a learn-to-play-hockey program in Prospect Park five years ago that blossomed into the Brooklyn Blades Hockey Club, which now has three youth teams and the women's team. All but one of the women had never played hockey before.

The Blades include an Episcopal priest, a comedian, a doctor, a wire-service editor, an AIDS researcher, a candidate for a doctorate in German literature and a nominee for Housing Court judge. ''I started playing because my kids started,'' said Kathy Berliner, a family counselor who plays left wing and at 47 is the team's oldest player. ''It's a different experience to be on a team with a goal rather than just hanging around with women.''

Playing women's teams from Long Island and New Jersey, they have an 18-game schedule from November to March, and may play in women's tournaments in Pennsylvania and Montreal this winter, depending on their level of play and whether money is available.

The emergence of the team and its competitors is part of the growth of women's ice hockey in the United States. An increasing number of northern high schools and colleges are fielding teams, and women's ice hockey will be an official medal sport in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Dana Burgos, the team's youngest player at 17, hopes to go to a college with a women's hockey program. Ms. Burgos, who nearly got into a fight with the opposing goalie in a game last weekend, has scored three goals and two assists in five games.

''I like the speed,'' said Ms. Burgos, who plays center. ''I like everything about the sport. I like hitting people.''

The Blades prefer to play the region's few all-female teams, not mixed-sex teams. The players with experience on mixed teams complained that men tended to react two ways when a teammate was a woman -- the men rarely passed the puck to her and almost never let her on the ice during crucial moments. If the woman was an opposing player, men either didn't play her hard or asked her out on a date.

''A woman will score,'' Mr. Foeste said, ''and the goalie will say, 'You were so cute I couldn't keep my eye on the puck.' '' DAVID ROHDE

Photo: Margret Lillard, right wing, applies makeup after a game. (Robert Miller for The New York Times)